Rat c0nv3rsi0n
by muSU1
Summary: Our loveable deadly assassin, Zer0, is kidnapped by Rats and is mistaken to be their holy King! How this happens is stupidly unbelievable. Find out how our Vault hunter team save a friend in need. Will include Zer0 Gaige and Kreig Maya pairing to an extent. Chapter 3 edited.
1. Chapter 1

A.N: Inspired by how the character Zer0's body shape vaguely resembles the Rat bandit enemies that you see in the Fridge and the fact that my co-player in co-op sometimes mistakes Zer0 for an enemy and shoots him. Also going to be adding to the Zaige fics out there!

Also apologies if I make any mistakes relating to Borderlands II facts and especially Gaige's character since I haven't played any DLC's so all my info on her is from the Borderlands Wiki page and stuff. So let me know if I can improve in those areas, thanks.

Warnings for spoilers! Don't read if you haven't finished the game at least in the normal mode just in case.

N.B. In this story Gaige's birthday was recent so she is 19.

* * *

Chapter 1:

Zer0 was bored, not as in there was nothing to do because there was always the occasional mission or fulfilling someone's whimsical need. No. This assassin needed a challenge. Ever since the vault hunters had destroyed Handsome Jack and opened the Vault, Zer0 felt somewhat empty. He needed another aim another goal. Besides it would be awhile before any other Vaults had their locations pinpointed.

So off he went to the Highlands on his own whim, hopeful of some satisfaction.

"Assassin's never die." Zer0 growled as his blade slit the throat of an engineer. A EXPloader had sneaked up behind him and was charging a laser shot but the Hunter's digistructed clone had burst into a shocking coronas overwhelming the robot's circuits and causing a sequential larger explosion that blew up the cloaked stalkers too.

"It was a decoy!" shouted some random engineer who turned to run away but didn't go far before a sniper bullet to the head finished him.

"Leaves falling from trees/ Snow drifting on to the ground/ Life leaving your corpse." Zer0 said non nonchalantly as he stood, admiring the wreckage of his handiwork with the scenic backdrop of the highlands.

Pleased that the area was clearer now the assassin whipped his 'Jackobs' sniper away.

"You ASSHOLE Zer0!" Cried a shrill voice! A shock barrel flew in front of his face and before he could get far away enough- it exploded and his shield depleted. Soon there appeared above him, atop a hill, was a very angry Gaige...and her Deathtrap who looked like he was ready to blow the bewildered assassin into bits and bobs.

"Gaige! Oh Little One/ Why are you angry at me?/ What-" Before Zer0 could finish Gaige had fired a flame shot at his shoulder. Alighting him in red fury.

"I feel the burning / Eating through my equipment / Must stop,drop, and roll."

"You moron, you knew I was working on these left over loaders! You just couldn't help yourself could you?!, Oh my poor machines..." Here Gaige unquipped her gun, feeling safe to have Deathtrap aimed at the man (or whatever he is). She dropped down and inspected a damaged HOTloader, she sighed as she saw that there was no way to restore the parts they would have to be recycled, although the process wouldn't be even close to 70% efficient.

"...you knew that Roland...when he was still...well that doesn't matter! He asked me to re-program the loaders. We could use them to our advantage y'know!" At this point Gaige looked up to the injured assassin who had stood there like he didn't just take a bullet from a 19 year old, which pissed her off.

"HEY! Are you even listening!?" Gaige got her gun out again and fired another round, which went straight through him. "Oh great he's run away again! Stupid, cloaking, idiot."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise. I will do what I can to help you." The real Zer0 said as he reappeared to her side. He had a bunch of robotic metal wires in his hand which were bent into the shapes of flowers. Maya had given Zer0 advice on how to treat a lady that was 'on his radar' so to speak, since he obviously lacked skills in that department and used to have trouble talking to the young teen when they first met.

"These are for you, I was making them before these loaders and engineers- err- distracted me…"

She blushed. She really liked the gift but still wanted Zer0 to pay. So she snatched the metallic flowers and wacked his head with it. Zer0, being as gentlemanly and manly as possible took the hit but it had actually cracked his helmet.

Deathtrap lowered all his weapons and un-digistructed taking the sign that Zer0 = ally again.

"Wow this is actually a good melee weapon, thanks man. Just don't go doing shit like that again, think before you kill something that I might like."

Gaige sighed when she saw the rubble of robots,

"I just wanted to at least finish what Roland asked me to do, it is the least I could do, in memory of him-maybe. I dunno. I just wanted to do something for him."

Zer0 was about to speak before Gaige started chuckling. She turned her face to him again and smiled,

"Although you did a pretty neat job here."

An :**D** emoticon displayed on Zer0's visor.

"Urgh I shouldn't add to your killing, blood lust ego." Gaige said

"Killing isn't the/ only thing I lust for Gaige/I must have you know" Zer0 replied. Gaige frowned as if to say 'huh?'. Zer0 slowly advanced to her and gently grabbed her shoulder and with his other hand he caressed the back of his gloved hand against her rosy cheeks.

"Zer0?" Gaige asked with a questioning look as the realization of what he actually meant by what he 'lusted' for sunk in. She knew he liked her in some ways and she liked him too in a way. She thought they talked more to each other since they liked more of the same things, he was more protective of her but she just thought that it was because she was the youngest. But hang on he did give her flowers just now…and oh! He did get her that awesome Maiwan for her birthday. Oh dear.

"Its not only that/ But I like you Gaige, very much/ You are my wonder."

Her eyes widened and the heated blood rushing to her face didn't help, she liked what he said and then again she wasn't sure.

When Gaige didn't respond Zer0 worried a moment, he noticed that she was thinking so he thought he had to say more:

"You are beautiful/ I just love the way you are/ You make me feel whole."

All Gaige could think was that this was really cheesy. Or maybe that was just a subconcious protection for her to _not_ interpret his words any other way. She grabbed his hand that touched her cheek and smiled.

"Thank you Zer0," she pecked him on the side of his visor and walked off. Zero expressed an embarrassed emoticon (:$). Sometimes his visor would unknowingly express his emotions since it was linked to his brain functions. But usually he could choose to display them or not. When he was relaxed though, it would automatically display everything, so when he was asleep 'Zzz' would show.

"Huh? I…" Zer0 let her slip from his arms and go. He was a bit dumbfounded. He guessed that he would either get rejected or accepted mostly the former. But not that, whatever that was.

Gaige stopped in her tracks, her back facing him, atop the hill she had shot his decoy from, before she disappeared from his view and said, "I just need some time to think about what you said. But thank you for being so kind to me-"

"I never thought anyone could like someone like me." She quickly said before jumping into her light runner and speeding away.

While Zer0 was standing there, he realised was confronted with the ultimate challenge: 'How to love Gaige the way she wanted or rather, the way she needed.'

Unbeknownst to the young killing machine a Rat priest who had scurried from the Fridge had been inspecting Zer0 ever since he entered the Highlands that day.

"I finally found him! He is the One!" He hissed.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for the advice and reviews. I've made a lot of assumptions about Zer0 here so bare with me as I try to explain his mysterious side and how that plays into this story's plot.

* * *

Chapter 2

The rat that had spotted Zer0 was known amongst his brethren as the priest, in charge of upholding the culture and beliefs. Including prophecies and this is where Zer0 gets mixed up in their shenanigans. The priest was one day strolling through the rat tunnels in the Fridge and he spotted something sparkling in the corner of his eye. There was a bit of metal protruding out of a pile of slimy sewage. He assumed the acid dripping from above had slowly eroded away layers of that heap of sewage junk over time. Everyone knows how much they like shiny things, so he yanked it out, not minding the gunk that sprayed on his traditional gas mask.

When he wiped his goggles and his eyes widened in excitement. He didn't know it yet but he had just pulled out the greatest treasure in his life. It was in fact a door handle that he had pulled off, which meant that there was a door leading somewhere under the rest of the slime. After hours of digging he had indeed found a door revealing dark passage.

After trekking through he saw light at the end of the tunnel, it was in fact the red orange hues of the setting Sun. He had just discovered a tunnel that led into what he supposed to be an enclosed room, save for the huge 100 ft windows framing a view of the setting sun on the sea.

Gingerly creeping inside he saw through the windows and noticed that the room was built into a cliff. No wonder no-one had noticed this place before, it must be disguised to look like part of the cliff, he thought. He glanced down through the glass and noticed a sandy beach and a few baby threshers. Turning on the generator switch he found on the floor. He assumed the beach was just a breeding ground- until he saw a few floodlights turn on to reveal a 'natural defense' of what had to be like hundered threshers of twenty varieties. He turned back around and the little lights started to flicker on one by one rising into the ceiling one thousand feet above him and he saw he was inside the remnants of an old building. With worn out walls, these walls had grand detailed drawings on them. Decrepit furnishings and dust surrounded this small rat, so much dust on all the computers- these computers had to be like ten years old he assumed. When he walked closer to the walls and felt his claws on them he saw the pictures weren't just ordinary drawings though, no. They were encrusted with the shiniest metal ever! He screamed in delight and threw himself at them. Upon his closer inspection he noticed all the drawings were of the same thing- a tall skinny, helmet wearing figure in various poses and even the detail of the drawings were like blueprints. The figure looked somewhat like a rat too he thought, except that he was more of a deformed rat, like he was missing the claws and such. The figure was sometimes carrying a gun with pearl handles or depicted with blades in his hands. A title was given to some of them too: 'Specimen zero'.

He quickly summarised that this must be a prophecy left by his ancestors. Who else would leave such a grand sign in their home ground? The zero must meant he was the beginning and a zero is like a circle symbolic of never ending. The number represented the start of everything and the end of everything. With his skills as a priest he predicted that there will come a King one day to bring back leadership and the pride of his people, and that King was this 'zero' figure in the drawings.

So when he saw wanted posters of Zer0 the Assassin he immediately put two and two together and made him King. He sent scouts out to scour Pandora for him and to his delight Zer0 just happened to be in the highlands. Perfect.

Whilst Zer0 felt left in a somewhat vulnerable state, you could forgive him for being just a little bit of a 'huge dartboard'. Just ten seconds after Gaige had left this happened:

5 R.O.U.S were already in a circle around him, 7 Mole Rats that were buried underground formed a circle within them and 5 formerly cloaked rats had somehow appeared right by his feet.

A '!' appeared on Zer0's visor followed by a '?'. He cursed himself for being so lost in thought that he couldn't even sense their presence. Well he didn't feel like he was in danger until one rat jabbed his back with a needle. How a needle could pierce his armor was alarming but nonetheless Zer0 immediately counterattacked with his digistructed blade, Thrusting his sword backwards relishing that feeling of his blade running through that rat's mid torso.

"Not on an empty stomach…" The dying creature said in his last moments.

"Your mistake" growled the assassin as he pointed his blood dripping blade at the next one.

All the other enemies just awed in amazement and a few were bowing to him on their hands and knees.

"Oh our savior! Our King! How wonderful it must be to have our lives ended by your mighty power. But please do not be alarmed! We humbly took the liberty in injecting you with our mutant serum so that you would not be in misery due to your current form. Of course that form must feel limiting to you oh King."

Zer0 glared at the so called Priest he could tell the guy was speaking but he heard his speech in broken tones. The creature was talking again but now Zer0 was having blurred vision. His visor was malfunctioning. He had no idea what this stupid rat was saying… **WTF** **BRO**, **3MTa3**, **PA1N**, **00110000,** **_**, **LOL** and **\0/**all projected one after the other. He realised, with great worry, that he couldn't go into Decepti0n. What had they put in him? He thought.

"Wha-what did- you, do to me..," The hunter grunted, before doubling over and hitting the floor. There was a sudden shooting pain coming from his back where he was injected.

"It..it is all what you assked of usss my King. It is." Replied the rat priest nodding profusely whilst helping Zer0 into a more relaxed position. Not that it helped, he was still having trouble since some of his body functions weren't operating as normal. A quick self diagnosis revealed that the algorithms were messed up and 1+1 didn't = 2 anymore and his visor had missing pixels. Finally, as a safety mechanism the engineered side of his body went into 'safe mode', which meant he couldn't use his good arm let alone Decepti0n. The toxins from 'who knows what kind of' pathogens in the injection were having free reign in his flesh and he could feel the pain way more than before. His chest heaved as he found it painful to breathe.

"A virus!" gasped Zer0 in a final state of awareness before his head drooped to the side and he lost consciousness and faded into darkness. There was silence for a good two minutes.

A rat shouted out, "another morsssel for the fridge!" before being whacked over the head by his friend who clearly stated that Kings weren't food!

One of the other rats spoke out, "That- wasn't meant to happen …wasss it?"

The priest replied swiftly in the negative that it was expected since our King was just morphing to his superior state.

"Quickly now we must take our King to his rightful palace and his throne!" The Priest ordered to his underlings.

Who thought the rats could be so well organised as to take down a vault hunter- or were they just lucky?

* * *

Meanwhile in Sanctuary some of the vault hunters were gathered around a table in Moxxi's lively bar playing card games.

"Hang on aren't we missing someone?" Maya asked as she dealt the cards. She looked around the table. There was Salvador, Lilith, Brick, Modercai and Axton, the usual for games night, right?

"Oh I think we're missing the ninja dude." Axton said.

"You mean the invisible one?" Salvador replied.

"You mean the masked one that looks like that DJ, you know the one with the helmet, Daf-?" Mordecai added.

"I don't think you are allowed to make references like that," Lilith piped up quickly. Mordecai nodded defeatedly.

"He so does not look like him," Axton said in annoyance, it was just one mask out of many the guy had.

"Zer0! His name is Zer0. I swear you guys do this on purpose." Maya said as she rolled her eyes.

"So where is the then? I need to make my money back from the last game and the more the merrier." Lilith asked with a sly grin.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Thanks for the reviews! They really help. And an apology to 'Addicted to Zaige' because I couldn't get this chapter out in time to make use of your advice. And sorry for the delay I have a lot of work lately._

_Borderlands naturally contains many references some of which include Daft Punk (One of Zer0's helmets), Yu-Gi-Oh (The line: "How hilarious/ You just set off my trap card/Your death approaches.") and Fresh Prince of Bel Air. (The line:"This is the story/ All about how my life got/ Flipped, turned upside-down" when killing an enemy by running them over is from the intro, never heard that one though.)_

_Also if you haven't watched the short clip of Krieg: "A meat bicycle built for two." from the game developers, readily available on YouTube, go and watch it! _

_I've had a lot of influence and inspiration from the other brilliant Zaige fics out there, so thank you._

* * *

**Chapter 3 **

"Mahahaha! My mind is on fire!" Krieg shouted from the roof of Raider's HQ. Wielding his buzz axe and his other arm in the air in a- sort of victory pose.

Who knows what he was thinking right now. Gaige watched him from the balcony to pass time. She wasn't up for going to Moxxi's since her mind was still going back to what Zer0 had said to her. Unbeknownst to Gaige, Krieg had just thought of the best thing yet, hence his exclamation earlier. He would try to make an ECHO log when his more forward thinking side was affront. That way he could give it to Maya, so she could finally know what he really meant when he said he 'wanted to ride a meat bicycle built for two with her'. He stopped his manic laughter when he heard Gaige sighing. He flipped down to the balcony, feet resting on the rail and hands grasping the edge of the roof above. He stuck his head forward and eyed her up close. Gaige backed up a bit in surprise.

"Kreig!" Gaige yelled.

"Why is the little girl sad?" Krieg asked tilting his head, his eye narrowed.

When Gaige finally calmed down she sighed again.

"Why are you sad?" The psycho asked again.

"I…I don't know what you mean. I'm not sad. I'm just, I dunno." Gaige said shaking her head and folding her arms.

Kreig finally settled on the balcony and stood next to her facing Sanctuary like she was. "(Help her she is obviously sad. How would you feel if Maya was like this too? Ask her what is wrong. Go on.)" His inner voice said.

"LIFE! IS! PAIN!" Kreig finally spurted out. ("Close enough.")

Gaige raised a brow at him and then smiled. ("There now doesn't she look nice when she smiles?")

"Thanks Kreig." Gaige said, "Maybe all I need to do is accept things in life the good and the bad and not doubt it when good things really happen…Just like how I met you guys." She was thinking of Zer0 too as one of the best things that happened to her in her new life on Pandora, but she found it difficult to admit.

It had been an hour since the vault hunters started their card game and the next thing on the agenda was meant to be karaoke. But they needed Zer0's (apparent) awesome DJ skills since Moxxi's jukebox was... let's say 'inactive' after Claptrap was 'playing' with it last time.

"Soooo shouldn't we look for him?" Mordercai asked, fanning himself with his cards.

"Nah, who cares? I mean he probably got carried away hunting down some bandits or whatever." Axton replied, casually peeking at Salvador's cards while the gunzerker was busy chugging down a drink. He knew Zer0 would be more than fine in that case anyway.

"We should call his ECHO then at least." Mordercai suggested. "I mean that guy has that song I really like. I swear he stores them all in his helmet, his head is like an iTun-". Here Lilith interrupted with a natural cough. "(thank you Lil) -es library." Mordercai finished.

"You're welcome, idiot."

"Good idea," Maya got out her ECHO and tried to get through to Zer0. All that could be heard was static.

"That's odd it shows that his ECHO is on and is still transmitting and receiving…" Maya said whilst inspecting her own device.

"Maybe yours isn't working senorita," Salvador said.

"No I'm sure it is (senor)."

"Then maybe he wants to be left alone," Axton suggested whilst he reaped some riches, dragging in a pile of chips.

"Cheater." Lilith muttered eyeing Axton in jealousy. Axton stuck his tongue out playfully at her. Only the commando would know how close to the truth the siren was.

"Then wouldn't he just switch it off?" Mordecai asked.

"Ah touché."

"Okay well if he doesn't come back by tonight then we can safely assume that we need to worry about him and then go look for him." Maya suggested.

"Deal."

"Cool."

"Fine by me."

Just then Gaige walked into Moxxi's with Kreig in tow and went to join the other vault hunters at their already overcrowded table.

Krieg gave a quick glance to Maya and she smiled back. He blushed and turned his glance away. Good thing his mask covered most of his cheeks.

"Scoot over Axton" Gaige ordered with the least passion.

Axton raised an eyebrow in response. "What's the special word?" He teased.

"Just move" Gaige replied forcing herself a free seat by squashing Axton against Salvador causing both of their drinks to spill.

"Oi idiota watch it!" Salvador said to Axton.

"Hey its not my fault it was-"

"Just shut up will you?!" Gaige yelled. " Gimme some of your drink Mordy."

"Oh hey chica, no way, you can't have this stuff- too strong." The hunter said, defending his drink with a death grip.

Gaige narrowed her eyes and her brows furrowed, "Urgh! Why does everyone treat me like a kid! C'mon I've probably killed just as much as any one of you guys and looted more.

Kreig spoke up, "The little girl is a bit upset with life."

"Whats up with you Gaige? Did one of the guys do something to you again?" Maya asked. She looked ready to shoot the next bastard that came into her vision.

Maya liked Gaige and wanted to protect her. To her she was still innocent in so many ways despite being a badass killer in her own right like everyone else. Gaige still needed some sort of older sister to guide her in the other things in life, like guys, guys like Zer0 for example. She knew Zer0 liked her, since he asked Maya for advice on how he should approach Gaige today and the siren sensed that maybe this was the cause of Gaige's stroppy attitude.

Gaige sighed "Sorry I didn't meant to yell. No its not that, not really."

"Then? Whats going on, c'mon you know you can rely on us." Lilith asked in her tender voice.

"It's- It's Zer0. I saw him today and well I think maybe I was a bit unfair with him."

"Unfair? What is that it?" Lilith asked?

"Well- yeah I guess so."

"Oh come on! And you're worried about this?"

"A little, yeah" Gaige said avoided eye contact with anyone, this was getting a little embarrassing.

Axton chuckled. "You shouldn't worry about being _unfair_ with Zer0 of all people, that dude _always_ nabs the best loot before anyone else and you're worried about being unfair? "

The other vault hunters nodded in agreement.

Gaige looked up and smiled slightly. She really was gratefull for her friends here but she was still worried that she had upset Zer0 and he hadn't come back yet.

"Maybe you guys are right but he still hasn't come back from when I last saw him, and when I saw him it looked like he had finished quelling his boredom."

"Hmmm...okay maybe we should be more worried about him." Lilith said. Gaige bit her lip and leant forward towards Lilith.

The siren continued, "He's not responding to his ECHO despite it being on. Gaige where did you last see him?"

"The Highlands." She stuttered. Oh shit, was he really not coming back because he thought she rejected him?

"Alright. I think a few of us should scout around there now whilst a group goes to the spots where we think he will most likely be and ask around. I'll stay here in case he comes back and besides I shouldn't leave Sanctuary alone too often." Lilith said naturally going into an authoritative mode.

"Okay" Mordecai nodded "I'll lead the scouting team."

"I'll go with you!" Gaige immediately said, shooting up from her seat.

The hunter smiled, "Okay that's two, we need one more…mmm-Axton you're with us. We might need fire power from your turret and its defence capabilities.

"Roger that" Axton saluted also rising out of his seat. He patted Gaige on her shoulder he was trying to show her his enthusiasm, maybe that would help her feel better about herself.

* * *

So as the Vault hunters set out to find their missing friend, said friend was having a tough time adjusting to his new predicament. When the assassin had reawakened he was faced with a canopy bedstead. He sat up and realised with discomfort that his robotic arm was malfunctioning. Soon he wouldn't be able to use it anymore. He cursed under his breath and looked around at his confinement. His eyes squinting as they adjusted to the dimly lit room he was in. At first he noticed he was sitting on a mattress that was actually clean for once with a warm duvet over him.

"Huh- clean? Wow." He said brushing a hand over the softness and hearing a tearing sound. That's when he saw that his fingers looked and felt weird. He had claws! He started questioning what the hell had happened and remembered how he ended up there.

"Oh, yeah! - Shit happened." He said defeatedly.

"But how do I have claws!?" He yelled. His voice echoed, since there was no reply he surmised that he was alone for now.

He decided to get out of bed and look around, he realised that his body was moving quite fine but he still felt a but weird, he wondered what other things in his body had changed….was it that virus?

After circling the mostly empty space for about five minutes he heard a crunch under his boots. he had stepped upon a half broken mirror that lay on the floor. In some moonlight that crept through the high windows he stared back at his reflection in horror. Not only did he have claws but he was short! Maybe just a bit taller that Salvador but still he was short! His suit and helmet were still in place, it looks like his captors didn't know how to take that off thank goodness. He could never compromise his identity. He started touching various parts of his body to see what else was amiss or had changed.

His main weaponry was gone including his shields and extras like his HUD that came with his ECHO. Fortunately he still had his digistructed katana- probably his most lethal weapon of all and his most used. So long as he had life in him he would exact his revenge on those stupid rats. They would come to regret this.

'Wait if I am a prisoner then why have I been given a warm room with a nice bed? Why haven't they just eaten me or something? Just what is going on?' He thought to himself.

Zer0 was used to being a prisoner but only for missions where he _allowed_ to be taken captive so that he would gain entry onto enemy territories and destroy them from within. So he spent his time trying to figure some way out of his prison:

There was a large window that faced a seaside but the glass or whatever it was made of was really strong that even his blade wouldn't scathe it. The door was made of humongous metal and seemed to be only activated by some switch. And the roof was nowhere to be seen, the lights of the room didn't even reach that far. So he meditated on his escape plan. Maybe first wait upon the enemy and figure out why they hadn't eaten him yet.

Also at the back of his mind was a nagging fact. The fact that, what he presumed to be, a mere injection needle, (it most certainly felt like it to him,) was able to penetrate his sheild _and _armour in a relatively weak stab. The interlocking fibres in his suit were designed with such tensile stress and strain to withstand much more than a needle prick. After countless battles Zer0 knew this in practice to be true. There was only one unique material he knew that could do that. The problem was that the only persons who knew of this material were Zer0 and the few people who made his suit and had made him what he was: The Atlas Corporation's 'Weapons Engineering Division 0'. Division 0 was a null division meaning it was top secret, made to pioneer research that was immoral and only a select few personnel knew about it. Division 0 then evolved into what made the all female Atlas Assassins.


End file.
